The "Transformers" review was the last straw. I have read the N&O since I was 13 (8 years ago) and have yet to see a single movie review that was even remotely decent. I discussed this prospect with everyone I know, and apparantly they only read movie reviews now because they know that 9 times out of 10, if the reviewer said it was bad, it was great, and if the reviewer said it was good, it was a sappy, drawn out snorefest that only some of the elderly and a few females would enjoy (pardon the gross generalization there, but you catch my drift). Case in point: Transformers. Rating: 2 stars. The movie is about 20 foot tall robots doing battle for the Earth's future... of course it is going to be over the top! Did Mr. Lindsey note the mind-numbingly incredible special effects? No. Instead he chose to make comments about the few humorous parts of the movie that, while they may not have tickled HIS funny bone, there was not a single person who wasn't laughing in the sold-out theater I was in. So in order to give the movie a proper review, I decided to take it upon myself and a couple friends of mine who (I feel) are more than qualified (One of my friends and I just graduated with degrees in Animation (a HUGE part of this movie), and another friend has her degree in Film-making). So here it goes!
Transformers (PG-13 sci-fi action violence)
Rating: 4.5 stars
The premise is simple. Two forces of good and bad robots (Autobots and Decepticons, respectively) battle for Earth's future. The execution, however, goes far beyond that. The initial hour or so of the movie is spent developing the plot, storyline, and the human characters, punctuated with relatively short, intense, action sequences. The story itself is not over the top at all considering the premise, the characters are engaging and extremely well played (With the exception of the S7 agent played by John Turturro, who seemed to lack any real depth and made me stop watching the movie and start trying to figure out why, exactly, his character was there. But only for the few scenes he was in), and the action sequences are beautiful, intense, amazingly executed pieces of work. The special effects were absolutely incredible in every way, and the transformers were absolutely amazing to watch in action. Whether transforming, fighting, or just milling about, the transformers were engaging characters in their own right, and you can feel the pangs of emotion for them during the massive fight scenes. Director Michael Bay certainly exceeded all of our expectations of him (which were quite low, considering the flop that Pearl Harbor and most of his other movies are) and delivered an immersive piece of art that had the entire theatre on the edge of their seats for most of the movie. The only real gripes we had with the movie was that the faces of the transformers were not at all like they were in the original cartoons/toys (but they still looked amazing nonetheless), and that in older forms, there were only a maximum of 10 things that moved when the transformers transformed from vehicle to robot, but in the movie there were hundreds or thousands (again, it still looked utterly incredible). This movie is definately going to be hard to beat as far as action movies go, and if you're in the mood for an afternoon well spent, go see this movie as soon as you can and as many times as you can (we will be going at least 10 times, as this is the kind of movie that one should experience in the theatre)
Let me know what you think!
PS- the exact terminology i used after the movie was "Wow... I just spent almost three hours having my eyes and ears assaulted by the sheer volume of awesome coming from that movie"
your review of Transformers
A much better review than the one in the paper! I agree with you about N&O reviews, very disappointing. Hope you do more reviews -- at least it gives me some info to make a decision about whether to see the movie. I also enjoyed Transformers!